Bumpei Sugano

Hometown: Tokyo

Prior Education: Kyoto University, LL.B

What I Did Before Law School:

I worked for Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. During last two years, I dealt with International climate change negotiation, the rule-making process of global warming, one of the most serious global issues people are confronted with. As environmental issues are highly connected with various policy areas such as economy, energy, science and even ethic, negotiation process requires the art and practice of diplomacy to truly achieve both national interest and global common good. This experience opened my eyes to the necessity of taking the leadership in cooperating with other players including other countries and domestic stakeholders based on profound understanding on the international law and politics.

Why I Chose Penn Law:

Penn Law provides a set of strong programs to establish a solid basis for student’s leadership and academic/professional accomplishment. Based on intimate collaboration with faculty, students are strongly encouraged to take initiative to give a social impact on the society in a wide variety of fields including not only legal issue but also business and cultural challenges.

These well-prepared programs ranging from English tutorship to career support allow LL.Ms to enjoy the opportunities in the US and maximize the precious time with best-ever friends from all over the world.

Moreover, decent size of LL.M students (120) also makes it possible for students to work closely with JD students, professors and other faculty members.

My Best Academic Experience in the Summer Program:

The Summer Program is definitely what differentiate Penn Law from other schools. Penn law fully supports new LL.M students to absorb US legal system and history before fall semester begins. Warmly welcomed to the entrance of US legal world, we, the newcomers, are given the great opportunity to have everyday dialogue with professors to address difficulties we have during the first month of study. Through these encouraging dialogues, we found not only academic understanding but also mutual confidence between professors and LL.M students.

My Best Social or Cultural Experience in the Summer Program:

What amazed me was the closeness to the faculty members. We could easily invite them for brown lunch meetings where we not only asked the questions but also talked about life and outside interests to get to know about each other. This friendliness that Penn Law community has molded has facilitated us well to integrate ourselves into this new world as a Penn Law member.